Kamala Harris needs to get her marketing A-game on to win
by Steve Parker, founder and strategy partner at Bird
No marketer would spend millions on a campaign without a compelling benefit to put in front of their audience. And they certainly wouldn’t make their market-leading competitor the focus of their 30 second spots. Well, unless you’re a burger company with an envy for Golden Arches.
Like Burger King, it seems Kamala Harris is more concerned with the views of opinion-forming juries, not product-buying customers. But in politics there are no Lions or Pencils to keep you warm at night while your market share flatlines. You’re available to buy for one day only. An all-or-nothing fire sale where voters have around 12 hours to turn up to buy, and then – in a purchase moment that can take mere seconds – decide whether to stick or switch.
We’re entering the final bend of the US presidential election campaign. Politics is a category all to itself but there’s plenty it can learn from marketing, even if “buying” in this case looks a little different to more familiar consumer verticals.
Both candidates need high degrees of mental and physical availability to ensure the maximum number of “sales” on election day.
The key drivers for physical availability are mainstream media appearances, and the volume and commitment of local campaigners. Brand building and sales activation in our parlance. The more you make yourself physically available during the campaign, the more likely you are to reach low interest shoppers, who are your potential switchers. This requires the stamina to continually turn up on daytime TV and get coverage on local news, and an exceptional ground game so that your brand is visible on lawns and pushed through doors.
Stock levels are not an issue when it comes to politics, but in the US, finding a store and being let in can be problematic. However, once any hurdles are overcome, everyone enters the same shop. The candidate list is the same for every voter.
Mental availability rests entirely on the ability to get noticed. Making yourself distinctive is the top priority, and Donald Trump’s political career is built entirely on his ability to do this.
His outline can be recognised anywhere, and having a fake tan and a backcombed dyed blonde mop isn’t the electoral cyanide many would have once presumed. His gift for a nickname and range of offbeat vocal tics gives the audience something to cheer and something to remember, even if the rest of it is incoherent.
Trump’s distinction is compounded by his opponents, who find themselves unable to talk about anything else. If Harris loses, it will be down to her inability to free herself from this trap. She calls him a dictator, a fascist, a threat to democracy. The problem here is that swing voters don’t see these messages as a substantial reason to shift their behaviour. They might motivate the Democratic base, but with margins this tight, that’s not going to be enough.
There’s only one game in town in elections. The economy. Everyone wants to be better off, even if they disagree on how to get there. So make the link. Don’t describe your product, say how it changes your audience’s world.
Dictators tank economies. Fascists suppress wages. When you destroy democracy, you destroy jobs.
The purchasing decisions of just a few thousand thousand swing voters will endure for years. The stakes are far too high to be left to politicians alone. Someone get Kamala a planner before it’s too late.
Steve Parker is founder and strategy partner at Bird. He was previously head of strategy at M&C Saatchi London.
The “ad agencies” and “media buyers” are not your regular ad people. They’re blood-thirsty whores that make more money than any ad agency executive team, combined. So… what did you expect?